Sermon by Rev. Len DeRoche

The Metaphysics of Star Trek

This sermon is a result of Rosemary Donahoe's lending me a Star Trek movie about 4 month ago. The series Star Trek first appeared on television 33 years ago and has had almost a religious cult following since. At its inception I was a Trekkie and watched too many episodes at the expense of many of my college studies. From its first show and for the three years that the original series was shown, the program subtly displayed a certain and distinct philosophy, theology or metaphysically ideas. The word metaphysics comes from the Greek and means after physics. It is the branch of philosophy that treats of first principles, includes something called ontology and cosmology that is it treats the relationships which underlies reality. 

The series was a product of the author Gene Roddenberry. Gene Roddenberry led a life more interesting and exciting than almost any of his fiction. He was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1921, moved Los Angeles as a boy, studied three years of college pre-law and then transferred his academic interest to aeronautical engineering and qualified for a pilot's license. He volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps before Pearl Harbor and became a flying cadet at Kelly Field. Second Lieutenant Roddenberry was sent to the South Pacific where he entered combat at Guadalcanal, and flew B-17 bombers. In all, he took part in 89 missions and sorties. While in the South Pacific, he also began to write. He sold stories to flying magazines and later poetry to publications including The New York Times. Upon his return from combat, he became a trouble-shooter investigating the causes of air crashes for the Air Corps.

After the war he joined Pan American World Airways and studied literature at Columbia University. It was on a flight from Calcutta that his plane lost two engines and caught fire in flight, crashing at night in the Syrian Desert. As the senior surviving officer, Roddenberry sent two Englishmen swimming across the Euphrates River for help. After his rescue and back in the States, Roddenberry continued flying until he saw television for the first time. After this epiphany he left his flying career and went to Hollywood. 
Not finding a writing job he joined the Los Angeles Police Department where his father had worked. He found this life valuable from the perspectives of a writer. Sergeant Roddenberry sold scripts to such shows "Dragnet," and "Naked City." Established as a writer, he turned in his badge and became a freelancer. Later, he served as head writer for the highly popular series "Have Gun, Will Travel." He created and produced "The Lieutenant" TV series, starring Gary Lockweed and Robert Vaughn, the story of a young man learning the lessons of life while in the United States Marine Corps. "Star Trek" followed in 1966-l969. And the rest as they say is history.

Roddenberry 's theology infected the script of the series from its inception. As a youth he attended Baptist church, and at sixteen that he began to pay any real attention to the sermons: 
"I remember complete astonishment because what they were talking about were things that were just crazy. It was Communion time where you eat this wafer and you are eating the body of Christ and drinking His blood. My first impression was "Jesus Christ, this is a bunch of cannibals they've put me down among . . . I guess from that time it was clear to me that religion as largely nonsense, was largely magical, superstitious things."

Roddenberry has been accused falsely of being a UU, but thought of himself as a humanist.  He says, "My second wife Majel Lee and I were both raised Protestant but well before ever meeting both left the Protestant Church in favor of non-sectarian beliefs which included respect for all other religions, but emphasizing the concept of God as too great and too encompassing to be explained and appreciated by any single system of belief. Upon meeting we found that both believed in the brotherhood of all life forms, human and otherwise.   He joined the American Humanist Association in 1986. 

It is this humanism that comes through as the underlying reality of Star Trek. Few people know how deeply humanistic Star Trek really is. Star Trek essentially is a science fiction myth of mankind humanizing a dangerous and exciting Universe. In the initial series there is a multiracial crew: Chekov, a Russian navigator; Sulu. the Japanese helmsman, and Scottie, a Scottish engineer. This series was made at the height of the Cold War.

One episode, "Plato's Stepchildren," shows Uhuru, the black female Communications Officer, whose name in Swahili for "Freedom", and Captain Kirk kiss. This first interracial TV kiss was produced during the civil rights movement. Even less racist, the Enterprise has the real alien, Spock, as Chief Science Officer. In Star Trek, Earth's racism has been abolished. Roddenberry uses the series to mirror a human society he would like created on earth. In '"The Balance Of Terror," a member of the Enterprise crew hears that the Romulans are distant relatives of Vulcans and turns his hate towards Spock - only to be admonished for his racism by Kirk.

Another human theme that Roddenberry deals extensively within both the original series and The Next Generation is the relationship of logic and rational thought to feelings. In an era that the world of commerce and Government seem to stress the balance sheet at the expense of the human condition of employees, Roddenberry creates the myth that shows these forces in perspective. The relationship between the Captain Kirk, Science Officer Spock and the Medical Officer McCoy is central to the original Star Trek. Kirk as the key figure in the myth is constantly balancing his decisions based on positions of Spock and McCoy. Spock, representing the pure thinking part of us, is cold and logical, sometimes appearing inhumane to those disagreeing with his difficult life or death decisions. His position is occasional shown correct. McCoy, representing the pure feeling part of us, is a true Humanist and Humanitarian setting life above all else. Kirk mediates between the two men and bi-polar extremes of the psychological drama. Symbolically, without Kirk present, Mc Coy and Spock argue constantly. McCoy views the Vulcan's logic as ruthlessly utilitarian and loses the fact that Spock has saved his life and other lives many times. Spock, as a half-human Vulcan, has taught himself to reject his mother's influence and suppress emotion in favor of pure logical thinking of his Vulcan father that represents pure objectivity. This is the psychodrama of a patriarchal society that is not socialized to accept the mothering side of humanity. Look too at the Greek use of Vulcan as the image of the builder who constructed with metal and was married to Venus. These opposites are put in opposition within Spock. When his human side peeps through it is with humor. This intensifies the running love-hate working relationship he has with McCoy. McCoy senses that Spock is more human, and more envious of human feeling, than he ever admits. This too is psycho-myth and the mythmaker is telling us that we should let our feeling side be more exposed.

This theme is continued and developed further in The Next Generation. While this series does have a Dr. Crusher, one character takes the entire action.   Here, Data, an android or a mechanical chemical creation, tries to be human.  Programmed as a computer that does not possess any functioning but Spockian logic he is given a computer chip for emotion in the movie Generations. In the past Data denies all emotion. "Disavowals of emotion are common-place among humans, too.  I have found myself being convinced I wasn't angry while I was yelling. My girls love to point this out any chance they get. But seriously men have been reputed to have the problem of not recognizing and expressing their own emotions. Data as a male looking android is very male in this attribute also. In the movie Generations Data enacts a human coming to realization with their emotions. His primary feelings becomes a profound sense of regret that he isn't a person. Here, Data is Pinocchio, the wooden boy who wants to be real. Here, we see the character experiencing lower order emotions like fear first and then after coming to grips with these, Data works on integrating higher order emotions like expectancy or pride. The author elevates humane actions as the highest aim of the series characters and technology. This idea of "being human," spreading human knowledge, wisdom, and exploring human attitudes permeates Star Trek. 

The author also is placing his thesis of the relationship of humans to the technical, with humanity being served by technology as the model. In many episodes the technical Pinocchio's logic is found wanting by the human masters. But the series is constantly asking the question, "what is human and personhood" and was Roddenberry's vehicle for exploring delicate moral situations in a thoughtful way. Many episodes were criticized for being ‘too cerebral," but Roddenberry insisted that the audience was not as dumb as his sponsors and supervisors imagined. In episode The Devil in the Dark the typical bug-eyed monster gains our sympathy for its violence when we find it’s a mother protecting her eggs. Such ‘humanizing of the monster’ often put Roddenberry in conflict with the studio that wanted safe formula programs. 

One of those safe formulas was the chaplain. Roddenberry was asked to put one in the regular cast so Christian values could be explained to aliens. He put his foot down: "How could you have a chaplain if you’ve got that many people of different and alien beliefs on your ship? With as many planets as we were visiting, every person on the ship would have to be a chaplain." Roddenberry’s displeasure for gods comes across frequently in Star Trek. In The Squire of Gothos, the captain meets a god who wants human playthings. Kirk realizes the immaturity of The Squire whose parents arrives and punishes him. Roddenberry’s implication is clear. Gods cannot interfere in human affairs without causing more problems than they solve. Once asked "What is your religion?" His answer was: "I do not belong to any church but I do consider myself a religious man. I believe that I am a part of you and you are a part of me and we are a part of all life . . . also a part of the creative force and intelligence behind life. Therefore, if we are a part of God then our lives are not brief meaningless things, but rather have a great importance and significance. All of us and each of us. 

As a model and a myth the series has and does exemplify everything we expect of myth and fairytales. It express the underlying best attributes of being human and expresses the society relationships that we would like to see lived in today's world, the metaphysics of a humane society. May Roddenberry's vision find a home in hearts of humanity, before the religious right sees those pink triangles on the blouses?

In an ever evolving and never-ending world. Amen.

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